Japanese Regulators Issue Stern Warning To OpenAI For Data Collection

Japanese privacy regulator warned OpenAI about its involvement in the collection of sensitive data without permission and threatened more action.

The officials in Japan are starting to tighten their stand toward artificial intelligence (AI) after the nation’s local privacy regulator warned ChatGPT’s parent firm about its data collection practices.

On June 2, Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission published an official statement asking OpenAI to reduce the sensitive data it collects for machine learning purposes. Moreover, it insists not to do that without users’ permission.

The commission also pointed to the need to balance its privacy issues with giving some room to boost innovation and the potential benefits that come with artificial intelligence. Nevertheless, it warned that it is ready to take more action in case more issues come up.

Those statements came a few days after the Japanese government submitted a draft from its AI strategy council on May 26, which raised issues about the lack of regulation for artificial intelligence and the risks it poses to the general society.

Japanese legislator Takashi Kii said that he also would start pushing for regulations that help protect copyright holders from AI algorithm infringement.

In March 2023, ChatGPT was temporarily banned in Italy after a keen review of its security protocols by Italian regulators. That ban caused lots of uncertainty from regulators globally, which kicked off many probes into the new technology by multiple countries.

At that time, Japanese regulators voiced support for OpenAI. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno even stated that Japan would consider integrating AI technology into various government systems. Nonetheless, Matsuno added that AI integration would only be possible if security and privacy issues were addressed enough.

An April 30 poll showed that 69.4% of surveyed Japanese would prefer strict regulations set in place for AI development. Recent Similarweb data showed that Japan is in third place based on traffic to the OpenAI site.